NEW DELHI: UNCTAD participants feared today [March 15] that the gold, and dollar crisis may spark off a recession of world trade that would nullify any beneficial effects of the Conference on Trade and Development.

Some experts said the only solution and one which has not been proposed this year would be calling a second world financial conference of the same type as that held at Bretton Woods in 1944, but with the participation of the Soviet Union and Communist bloc countries.

They predicted that the US Government could eventually be driven to declare a total embargo on gold that would literally put an end to 33 years of international economic co-operation.

This would herald the re-appearance of import quotas and of strict exchange controls. National currencies would again be subject to fluctuations.

It would then become necessary for the world’s two most powerful trade blocs, the US and the Common Market, to enter into negotiations to determine a new foundation to the international monetary system, the experts said.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2018